Cottonmouth Country

Louise Glück

1987

Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras.
And there were other signs
That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us
By land: among the pines
An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss
Reared in the polluted air.
Birth, not death, is the hard loss.
I know. I also left a skin there.
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Creator Bio

Louise Glück

b. 1943

Louise Glück was born in New York City. She is a critically acclaimed poet and essayist who served as the twelfth United States Poet Laureate in 2003–2004. The recipient of the National Book Award in Poetry, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, and a Pulitzer Prize, Glück currently serves as Rosencranz Writer in Residence at Yale University.

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